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    • COVID-19 Business Impact Center
      COVID-19 Business Impact Center
      Cold Call
      A podcast featuring faculty discussing cases they've written and the lessons they impart.
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      • 05 Jan 2021
      • Cold Call Podcast

      Using Behavioral Science to Improve Well-Being for Social Workers

      For child and family social workers, coping with the hardships of children and parents is part of the job. But that can cause a lot of stress. Is it possible for financially constrained organizations to improve social workers’ well-being using non-cash rewards, recognition, and other strategies from behavioral science? Assistant Professor Ashley Whillans describes the experience of Chief Executive Michael Sanders’ at the UK’s What Works Centre for Children’s Social Care, as he led a research program aimed at improving the morale of social workers in her case, “The What Works Centre: Using Behavioral Science to Improve Social Worker Well-being.”  Open for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.

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      Performance EvaluationRemove Performance Evaluation →

      Page 1 of 17 Results
      • 29 Sep 2020
      • Cold Call Podcast

      Employee Performance vs. Company Values: A Manager’s Dilemma

      Re: Nitin Nohria

      The Cold Call podcast celebrate its five-year anniversary with a classic case study. Harvard Business School Dean Nitin Nohria discusses the dilemma of how to treat a brilliant individual performer who can't work with colleagues. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

      • 03 Mar 2020
      • Working Paper Summaries

      Nominal and Opportunity Effects of Managerial Discretion

      by Wei Cai, Susanna Gallani, and Jee Eun Shin

      This study of field data from a Chinese manufacturing company explores the consequences of subjective performance evaluations leading to bonuses and penalties. Results may help practitioners improve the effectiveness of incentive systems.

      • 17 Sep 2019
      • Cold Call Podcast

      How a New Leader Broke Through a Culture of Accuse, Blame, and Criticize

      Re: Amy C. Edmondson

      Children’s Hospital & Clinics COO Julie Morath sets out to change the culture by instituting a policy of blameless reporting, which encourages employees to report anything that goes wrong or seems substandard, without fear of reprisal. Professor Amy Edmondson discusses getting an organization into the “High Performance Zone.” Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

      • 01 Jul 2019
      • What Do You Think?

      Are Super Stretch Goals Only for the Very Young?

      by James Heskett

      SUMMING UP: Super stretch goals can produce audacious results, but they are best left to companies agile enough to execute then, readers say. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

      • 21 May 2019
      • Working Paper Summaries

      rTSR: When Do Relative Performance Metrics Capture Relative Performance?

      by Paul Ma, Jee-Eun Shin, and Charles C. Y. Wang

      Managers are increasingly evaluated based on relative performance metrics, particularly relative total shareholder returns (rTSR). This paper finds that the majority of firms that tie CEO performance-based contracts to rTSR do a remarkable job of filtering out the systematic risk in TSR. However, a significant portion of firms make relatively poor choices in the design and selection of rTSR, a result of weak governance and an overreliance on compensation consultants.

      • 17 Dec 2018
      • Research & Ideas

      Women Receive Harsher Punishment at Work Than Men

      by Michael Blanding

      Women caught in misconduct were 20 percent more likely to be fired and 30 percent less likely to find new employment in the financial services industry, reports new research by Mark Egan and colleagues. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

      • 03 Dec 2018
      • Research & Ideas

      How Companies Can Increase Market Rewards for Sustainability Efforts

      by Rachel Layne

      There is a connection between public sentiment about a company and how the market rewards its corporate social performance, according to George Serafeim. Is your company undervalued? Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

      • 24 Sep 2018
      • Research & Ideas

      How Cost Accounting is Improving Healthcare in Rural Haiti

      by Carmen Nobel

      The cost of healthcare in rural Haiti was found to vary widely, even inside the same health organization. A pioneering cost accounting system co-developed by Robert Kaplan was called in to determine the cause. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

      • 26 Mar 2018
      • Research & Ideas

      To Motivate Employees, Give an Unexpected Bonus (or Penalty)

      by Michael Blanding

      Susanna Gallani finds that employees can be more motivated by the anticipation of a reward or punishment than the actual payoff. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

      • 13 Feb 2018
      • Working Paper Summaries

      In Search of Organizational Alignment Using a 360° Assessment System: Evidence from a Retail Chain

      by Carolyn Deller, Susanna Gallani, and Tatiana Sandino

      This study assesses a values-based 360° performance measurement system implemented at an Indian retail chain that led to improvements on financial performance, but not on desired non-financial dimensions.

      • 26 Apr 2017
      • Working Paper Summaries

      Assessing the Quality of Quality Assessment: The Role of Scheduling

      by Maria Ibanez and Michael W. Toffel

      Accurate inspections enable companies to assess the quality, safety, and environmental practices of their business partners, and enable regulators to protect consumers, workers, and the environment. This study finds that inspectors are less stringent later in their workday and after visiting workplaces with fewer problems. Managers and regulators can improve inspection accuracy by mitigating these biases and their consequences.

      • 20 Nov 2015
      • Working Paper Summaries

      Impact Evaluation Methods in Public Economics: A Brief Introduction to Randomized Evaluations and Comparison with Other Methods

      by Dina Pomeranz

      Dina Pomeranz examines the use by public agencies of rigorous impact evaluations to test the effectiveness of citizen efforts.

      • 09 Sep 2015
      • Research & Ideas

      Leadership Lessons of the Great Recession: Options for Economic Downturns

      by Sandra Sucher & Susan Winterberg

      In the new case study “Honeywell and the Great Recession,” Sandra Sucher and Susan Winterberg explore employer tradeoffs when a downturn hits: conducting layoffs vs. orchestrating furloughs. Plus: Video interviews with Honeywell CEO Dave Cote. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.

      • 25 Jul 2013
      • Research & Ideas

      Why Unqualified Candidates Get Hired Anyway

      by Anna Secino

      Why do businesses evaluate candidates solely on past job performance, failing to consider the job's difficulty? Why do university admissions officers focus on high GPAs, discounting influence of easy grading standards? Francesca Gino and colleagues investigate the phenomenon of the "fundamental attribution error." Closed for comment; 24 Comment(s) posted.

      • 18 Jun 2012
      • Research & Ideas

      Better by the Bunch: Evaluating Job Candidates in Groups

      by Maggie Starvish

      The key to avoiding gender stereotyping in the hiring process lies in evaluating job candidates as a group, rather than one at a time. So says new research by Iris Bohnet, Alexandra van Geen, and Max H. Bazerman. Open for comment; 6 Comment(s) posted.

      • 11 May 2011
      • Research & Ideas

      Building a Better Board

      by Carmen Nobel

      While corporate board members take their jobs more seriously than ever, they are not necessarily as helpful or effective as they could be, says HBS senior lecturer Stephen Kaufman. He recently sat down with HBS Working Knowledge to discuss what he considers to be the biggest practical issues facing boards today. Key concepts include: Board directors may not give an honest assessment of the company because they fear reprisal from the CEO or the other board members. In accurately evaluating a CEO's performance, board members must get feedback from other employees at the company, who possess insight into day-to-day operations that the directors do not. Closed for comment; 11 Comment(s) posted.

      • 27 Nov 2006
      • What Do You Think?

      What’s to Be Done About Performance Reviews?

      by Jim Heskett

      What can we do to make performance reviews more productive and less distasteful? Should their objectives be scaled back to just one or two? Should they be disengaged from the determination of compensation and, if so, how? Closed for comment; 93 Comment(s) posted.

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